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Nhã Nhạc – Court Music in Vietnam (Intangible Cultural Heritage)

“The court music” is normally understood as types of music, including other music types served with dance and opera, used in worship rituals and in the imperial court, in national festivals which the imperial court organized entertainments for the king and royal families. Regarding the name “Nhã Nhạc”, it carried different meanings under feudal dynasties in Vietnam. Sometimes, it meant court music in general, music feast in particular; sometimes it related to music organization, even a certain orchestra.

The Vietnam court music has been officially developed under Nguyen dynasty since early 19th century. However, the foundation of the court music started from 17th century under Nguyen dynasty when the lord moved to the South of Vietnam. The most prosperous time of the court music was in early 19th century under King Tu Duc (1848-1883). In period 1947-1948, the queen Tu Cung (mother of the King Bao Dai, wife of the King Khai Dinh) gathered some artisans of the court music under the king Bao Dai, thanks to her work, some kinds of court music and dance have been maintained. In 80s of 20th century, the Hue court music started attracting the attention of Cultural department and local government. In 90s, the Hue court music stepped on renaissance period. From then to now, this kind of music has been introduced to a lot of countries in the world.

The Hue court music types include worship music feast and music of imperial court rituals, court dance, and court opera.

In the past, the Hue court included a variety of kinds: court music used to Te Giao ritual; temple music for the temple rituals; five music types for sacrifice rituals of the Divine Farmer, the city God; dynasty music for big festivals or for welcoming officers from foreign countries; party music for big parties in the court.

Hue Court Music is the last vestige of Vietnamese Court Music. It contains all quintessence of Vietnamese Court Music trend that has been established and developed over 1,000 years, therefore Hue Court Music is identical with Vietnamese Court Music.

At the official meeting of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) in Paris, Nha nhac, Vietnamese Court Music, that Hue has preserved so long, was officially listed by UNESCO among masterpieces of the Oral and intangible heritage of humanity on 7th November 2003. This is the first intangible heritage of Vietnam ever listed in this list, recognized the achievements of 10-year process of striving, tireless preparation of the central, local governments and the Hue Monuments Conservation Centre.